Al Marciano elected Retirement Board chairman

AL MARCIANO

Posted
Thursday, March 29, 2012 1:00 pm

Al Marciano, CPA, was unanimously elected as the new chairman of the city’s Retirement Board last Wednesday.

Mayor Scott Avedisian said he and Marciano have discussed the future direction of the board, and one of the first initiatives that will be implemented is to offer fiduciary responsibility training for board members. The city is contacting appropriate sources to lead this training, which could be part of occasional board development seminars.

Both public employees and private citizens have

led the board in the past.

“David Picozzi did a fantastic job as the leader of this

board for many years and we are sorry to see him leave this position,” the mayor said. “However, in looking at the makeup of the board, given the major attention focused on pensions and retirement issues, I thought that it would be best at this time to have a private citizen lead the group. Al Marciano is a well-respected CPA with a large practice in Providence and will lead the board into the future.

Unlike many municipal plans that are distressed, the city’s municipal pension plan overseen by the board is 70 percent funded. The plan has 413 active members, 337 inactive members and assets of about $84 million as of last December. The retirement board also oversees the investments for Police and Fire pension plans.

The board, established by city ordinance, is comprised of the director of finance (ex officio), personnel director (ex officio), chairperson of the City Council finance committee (ex officio), president of the municipal employees bargaining unit (ex officio), a current employee who is a municipal union member, a retiree, an employee not in the municipal employees’ union, and four members of the general public who are not officers or employees of the city.

“One thing that I would like to focus on, with Al Marciano's full agreement,” Avedisian said, “ is some fiduciary responsibility training for the members of the board. I have been in contact with Thomas Dwyer and Ian Ridlon of The Trust to conduct such training.”